The Range Rules

by Darren Greer

When Ryan and Shawn Sullivan’s socially ambitious father enrolls them in the prestigious Novato Towne School for Boys, the brothers unwittingly uncover the strange legacy of Charles Steven Kaye, a student who, expelled two decades prior for “lewd and disgusting acts,” became the notorious and universally reviled queer pornographer John Dark. Obsessed with the enigmatic figure of Dark, Shawn rejects the stifling expectations of his upper-class upbringing, leaving his affluent family home and disappearing into the underground queer scene in California. Ryan follows his older brother into this hidden world, seeking to capture Shawn’s life on film and make sense of his unravelling.

Set against the backdrop of a parole house, to which Ryan was released after three years in jail, The Range Rules is a daring, defiant, and darkly wondrous exploration of transgressive queer pornography, prison culture, twelve-step recovery, and a search for redemption, connection, and compassion in spite of the invisible laws that govern our lives.

340 pages, Paperback

Expected publication October 5, 2026

About the author

Darren Greer is the author of five novels and a book of essays. His novel Still Life With June was the winner of the 2004 Relit Award in Canada, a top three finalist for the Ferro-Grumley award in Manhattan, and was nominated for the Pearson Canada Readers’ Choice Award.

His novel, Just Beneath My Skin, was short-listed for the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award, the 2015 ReLit award, and won the 2015 Thomas H Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. His novel Advocate was short-listed for the 2017 Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the 2017 Ferro-Grumley Award and won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award. His latest novel Outcast was released October 1st, 2018.

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the ARC in exchange for a review.
———
Review to come